Container handle



April 10, 1945. J. c. MORRIS CONTAINER HANDLE Filed Dec. 10, 1943- Patented Apr. 10, 1945 CONTAINER HAYDLE James C. Morris, Wadsworth, Ohio, asslgnor to The Ohio Boxboard Company, Rittman, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application December 10, 1943, Serial No. 513,755

3 Claims.

This invention has reference to paperboard containers, and particularly'to a handle for containers of the form represented generally by that shown in the patent of Arnold L. Crowell, No. 2,123,771, dated July 12, 1938.

The container of the present invention is shown as having outwardly flaring side walls, as distinguished from that of the Crowell patent, but

a paperboard container by staples in the ap parently conventional and acceptable manner.

this is a matter of choice or demand as dictated a by the trade, it being obvious, as will hereinafter appear, that the handle means of the invention are applicable to containers of various types so long as they embody structural features essential to the effective embodiment of the invention.

It has long been the practice to hingedly attach wire handles to wooden or veneer containers,

especially grape baskets, by providing the side walls of these baskets with oppositely disposed staples having their ends clinched in-the basket walls and presenting, above the upper edges of the walls, their closed loops through which the bent ends of the handles are inserted and with which they are effectively connected by appropriate bends or the like adjacent to the handle ends.

To thus apply wire handles to paperboard containers, even those of double thickness in their side walls, has proven impractical for the reason that the papenboard material has not suficient strength to support on the clinched staple ends the weight of the loaded or filled container when suspended by its handle. The staples have been found to pull out of the paperboard material, or tear through it, under'load, thus not only destroying the utility of the handle but rendering the container unfit for use or reuse, and making the whole assembly untrustworthy and unacceptable to the trade.

It is desirable to provide the trade, and consumers, with containers as closely approaching as possible those with which they are familiar, and under present conditions of shortages in various materials, particularly wood and metal, the paper and paperboard containers which are being in large measure supplied as substitutes for wooden and metal containers should, in order to be acceptable, rather closely conform to the types which they are substituted.

This holds truein relation to handles for containers, and the mode of their attachment, and

i it is the object of this invention to make practical the hinged attachment of a Wire handle to for As has been stated hereinbefore, the general,

form of the container adapted to the practice of the present invention is well known, but certain essential changes have been made in the formation and arrangement of its parts whereby it is adapted to the attachment of a wire handle in such a manner as to remove the faults and causes of failure heretofore generally present.

In accordance with the preferred form of the invention, as will be pointed out thereinafter, it has been found that, without increasing the ordinary size of the blank of paperboard from which the container is formed, and without modifying the general structure, form and appearance,;or mode of assembly of the container from knocked-down to set-up condition, sufiicient' material could be provided, as an integral part of the blank, tofurnish the reinforcement of the already double-thickness side, walls necessary for safe and practical hinged attachment of a wire handle member by means of the usual staples passing through and clinched in the side walls.

A modified embodiment is also disclosed in which separately applied reinforcing means are provided.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating the invention, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the paperboard blank from which the container is formed in accord ance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the set-up container with handle applied. Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional elevation o the inner face of a sidewall of the container showing the location and arrangement of the handle attaching and reinforcing means.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional elevation taken on the line l--4 of Fig, 3, and

Fig. 5 illustrates, in sectional elevation, a modified form of the invention.

The blank, Fig. 1, is made of paperboard material, preferably corrugated board or fiberboard, cut and scored to produce a bottom I, end walls 2 and side wall-forming portions 3 and 4 foldable on parallel scores 5 and 6 and which, when set up, provide the double thickness for the side walls and their top edges 1 (Fig. 2). The retainer flaps 8 of the end walls, which, when the container is set up, extend along the side walls between the thicknesses thereof (parts '3 and 4) are longer than is customary in this type of container, but it will be noted that their increase in length does not increase the size of the blank,

the additional material being taken from the customary locking tabs 9 which, as shown in Fig, 2, have their edges l-ll abutting and flat against the end walls 2 to hold the container in set-up condition in the customary manner.

The additional length of the flaps 8 thus 'obtained provides an overlap ll of their ends midway of the length of the side walls of the container, and this overlap furnishes two additional thicknesses of the paperboard material within the fold of each double-thickness side wall, thus giving four juxtaposed thicknesses of the material at the zones of the overlaps H which have been found, in practice, adequate to supportthe weight of the filled container when supported by the handle I2 conventionally hingedly attached by the staples l3 which have their clinched ends l4 passed through all four thicknesses.

It will be noted, moreover, that the top'edges of the flaps 8 are closely adjacent to and aligned with the under faces of the top edgeso f the side walls, thus precluding the possibility of relative movement between the parts 3,, 4 and 8 Isufficient to permit tearing of the material by the staples when the load of the supported by the handle. I r

Also, when the container is set-up and the ban.

dle-attaching staples I3 applied, the supporting function of the tabs 9 is augmented by themterconnection of the flaps 8 and their attachment with the wall portions 3, 4 to hold the container in set-up condition.

In the modification illustrated in Fig. 5,, the flaps 8' may be of a form more or less conventional in containers of this type, but preferably somewhat longer, as shown, so as to extend well along the side walls in the folds thereof, and the reinforcing means for the handleattaching staples I 3 may be provided as separate fiat members I5 formed of paperboard, wood, metal or other appropriate material embraced within the side walls of the container and preferably contacting the inner surfaces of the top edge folds 1; Thus the clinched staples it are furnished with bearing means serving as a reinforcement for the material of the side walls.

As hereinbefore stated, the invention thus provides a container of conventional form and appearance but embodying structural modifications of a nature, non-apparent, and unobjectionable from the standpoint of overall conformity to accepted conventional design, which make possi-- ble the secure and trustworthy provision of a staple-attached wire handle of accepted, approved form. r

Various changes and modifications are considered to be within the principle 'of the invention and the scope of the following claims. Wh'atIclaim is:

1; A container-made of paperboard, having a handle member attached thereto by staple means filled container is.

downwardly along the sides of said walls opposite those along which said loops extend, said container being of the type having oppositely disposed double-thickness side walls formed by folding the material upon itself along the top edges of said side walls, and end walls carrying retainer flap-means extending between the thicknesses of the said side walls, said retainer flap means having portions extending in overlapping relation and lying between the thicknesses of the side walls in the zone in which said staple means are clinched, said staple means passing through and being secured to the multiple thickness formed by said overlapping portions and the double thickness of said sidewalls.

2. A container made of paperboard, having a handle member attached thereto by staple means providing loops extending upwardly along and above the edges of and clinchedly engaging its side walls, said handle having ends extending downwardly along the sides of said walls opposite those along which said loops extend, said con-'- tainer being of the type having oppositely disposed double-thickness side walls formed by fold- .ing the material upon itself along the top edges of said side walls, and end walls carrying retainer flap means extending between the thicknessesi of said sidewalls, said retainer flap means having portions extending in overlapping relation and lying between the thicknesses of the side walls with their upper edges in close proximity to the inner faces of said edge folds in the zone in which said staple means are clinched, said staple means, beingthu's made to engage a multiple thickness of the sidewalls including said over lapping portions which thus serve as a reinforcement for the side walls, said retainer flap means providing an extended bearing at the inner face of the edge fold of each of said side walls.

3. A blank for paperboard containers of the ty e, normally comprising a bottom forming portion, side wall forming portions attached to said when set up, said side wall forming portions being provided with lines of fold substantially midway of their width to provide outer and inner side wall portions, end wall forming portions attached to said bottom forming portion and provided at the lateral edges with retainer flap means capable of arrangment within the folds of the side walls when the container is set up, and look ing tabs attached to the lateral edges of the inner sidewall portions and bendable with respect thereto and having free lateral edges for abutting engagement when the container is setup, characterized by the fact that said retainer fiap means are of a combined length at each side of said blank greater than the length of the adjacent side wall forming portion and thus provide at their free ends portions for overlapping arrangement within the folds of the respective side walls when set up, the extended length of said retainer flap means whereby such overlapping portions are defined being provided by parts ex tended into the material of the blank normally included in said locking tabs.

JAMES c. MORRIS, 

